The 100 Best Web 2.0 Classroom Tools Chosen By You

One of the most popular posts on Edudemic in 2010 was The 35 Best Web 2.0 Classroom Tools Chosen By You and I felt it might be time for an update to that list for 2011. In order to put together a list of the best Web 2.0 classroom tools, I polled my Twitter followers, Facebook fans (are they still called fans? Likes?) ran a contest to try and get as many submissions as possible.

There were more than 900 submissions but many were duplicates. This left me with 100 different Web 2.0 tools that are recommended by your peers. After all, what better way to uncover new products than by the people you are already sharing with?

Want to add your favorite Web 2.0 tool to this list? It’s not too late! We’ll be adding items through the rest of 2011. After that, we start building the 2012 list. To share your Web 2.0 tool, just leave a comment on this post or on the Edudemic Facebook page.

The following list is in no particular order so be sure to examine it closely. Think of it as a Where’s Waldo but for awesome resources. Each resource is written in big bold letters, followed by the description offered by the person who submitted the resource.

BLOGGER: I would have to say Blogger is my top Web 2.0 and 21st century tool pick. From an educational standpoint, blogs allows educators and students to collaborate, share instructional resources, create content and connect to mainstream social media channels such as YouTube, podcasts, other blogs, tweets, social bookmarks, etc. all on a single centralized page.

TRIPITCO: http://www.triptico.co.uk/ excellent free downloadable IWB tools. It gives you the tools to create your own activities for any subject or level. Very easy to use.

KIDBLOG: Kidblog.org is designed for elementary and middle school teachers who want to provide each student with an individual blog.

NETFLIX: It’s not just for laying back and being entertained. There’s loads of great educational and children-friendly TV shows and films on there (mostly on streaming).

WIKISPACES: I also love wikispaces because out is so ready for students to edit pages and add to discussions as well as embed links, videos, and other web 2.0 creations

VUVOX: Currently I am playing with vuvox and it is a blast.

COZI: I love Cozi because it lets me share photos, calendars, shopping lists etc. with partner, who hates technology. This one is easy enough to use on my cell or anywhere – ease of use is the trick.

TAGXEDO: Tagxedo (helping students to digest and refine a body of text looking for themes or recurring images).

PHOTOBUCKET: Photobucket is a great image hosting site. I upload all of my DECA club pictures so they are available to show and share without a jumpdrive. It is easy to upload and share to social network sites.

VOICETHREAD: I would have to say VoiceThread is one of the better Web 2.0 tools that I have used with students. It allows users to tell their story and collaborate with others. I had students use it to share their research on US consumption vs. global consumption last year and they did a fabulous job. Even students that were hard to reach were able to do a great job in sharing their voice to the conversation.

PIVOT STICK FIGURE ANIMATOR: I like Pivot Stickfigure Animator. I teach junior high and this keeps them busy and creative after finishing their work. I also incorporate the saved projects into MovieMaker with music towards the end of the year. I showcase them for the middle school on the TV announcements as well.

AUDIOVOX: I love Audiovox. This is a great tool for having students practice their target language. I can post a topic or a question and students can go on-line and record their comments at leisure. They can also join a conversation started by someone else. Second Language oral blogging – What’s not to love?!

GEOGEBRA: I think Geogebra (www.geogebra.org) is a fabulous tool for any math teachers and students! The ability to dynamically look at mathematical concepts for free makes it one of the most useful web 2.0 tools for teaching and learning mathematics. Not to mention all of the matericals which are being shared on geogebratube.org.

SCREENCAST: I use a combination of Edmodo, Jing, and Screencast to video tape revisions for my students’ language arts compositions. They just go to Edmodo where I have embedded a video of their papers with my voice (with use of the cursor going over the paper) suggesting how they should revise them (and, best of all, it’s all FREE!)

GLOGSTEREDU: GlogsterEdu is my and my students’ current favorite Web 2.0 tool. It gets technology out of the way, letting us express, share and discuss our ideas in unique, creative ways. Besides, it is just plain fun!

SCOOP.IT: Social media curation tool http://www.scoop.it/u/web20education . 2. Scoop.it is the best social media curation tool because teachers can use to build a powerful PLN , share and bookmark using social media and also they can receive feedback and likes for the post.

ANIMOTO: My favorite last school year was Animoto. My elementary students caught on very quickly and made impressive short videos!

PBWORKS: PBworks is my favorite Web 2.0 tool. I am a high school teacher and I create workspaces for each of the standards that I teach. I upload class notes, powerpoints, videos, and other resources to support the standards that I teach. Students can access the workspace anytime to get information that they missed or just to review the information. Best of all—it’s FREE!

MINDMEISTER: Mindmeister is the only freemium tool that I’ve paid to upgrade. It has a lovely combination of all the functionality I need to map out conceptually organized ideas quickly (keyboard shortcuts! Thank god for keyboard shortcuts!) and a well-designed UI that’s pleasant to use. I use it to mind map everything from medium and long-term development plans of data systems, my notes and module info from a postgrad course to a presentation outline for a talk at BETT. With the mobile apps being developed/in use (depending on platform), it’s still getting better.

CEL.LY: cel.ly I adore cel.ly because with it I can: collect responses to check for understanding, have students share without them having any fear that they are wrong (because they can comment without classmates know who is commenting), engage students with each other in a manner in which they are comfortable (asking them to do awkward things such as Tea Parties but without them having to walk about pretending to be someone), respond to individuals privately without classmates knowing and without sharing my personal cell phone number. Celly rocks.

GOOGLE FOR EDUCATORS: At Google, they support teachers in their efforts to empower students and expand the frontiers of human knowledge. That’s why they’ve assembled the information and tools you’ll find on that site.

FACEBOOK: Some haven’t said it (I don’t think) but Facebook is the best way for me to connect with my students and family and friends at the same time.

DIIGO: Diigo is my favorite web tool. I use it to keep up with all the great websites that I find on the many educational blogs that I read daily. I go through the links in Diigo and share them with teachers and other faculty in my school system.

XTRANORMAL: I love Xtranormal! This is the easiest cartoon/movie maker I have ever seen! They now offer educator accounts so you pay nothing! My students loved using it to explain the results of their science labs and to present info. In my new position as an instructional coach, I have used it to excite teachers about using technology in their classroom and add a bit of humor and interest to our training sessions!

VOICETHREAD: I would have to say VoiceThread is one of the better Web 2.0 tools that I have used with students. It allows users to tell their story and collaborate with others. I had students use it to share their research on US consumption vs. global consumption last year and they did a fabulous job. Even students that were hard to reach were able to do a great job in sharing their voice to the conversation.

TWITTER: No doubt…I love Twitter. I use it both as an educator and as a retired pastor. Recently, on Twitter I found a flier from the Florida Literacy Coalition that included a list of organizations that offer grant money to non-profits. Since my church is about to start new ministries in the area of literacy, I passed it along. I expect our wonderful church grant writers to find LOTS of money for our new programs. (I wish I could get a commission on the grant money, oh well…)

DROPBOX: My favorite web 2.0 tool is dropbox.com. I have shared many files with this and have accessed my files from a myriad of computers – even when out of the country!

WIKIS: Wikis (Wikispaces.com) is my favorite tool in recent months. I never imagined it would be so easy to use both for specific collaborative projects or complete courses

WORDLE: Wordle is my favorite Web 2.0 tool…. love using it to teach word choice. It is an excellent tool to integrate literacy into other content areas.

ICOFX: The best Web 2.0 Tool is IcoFX Simply amazing. Create your own icons. For e.g for movie GODFATHER create an icon of Clemenza kissing hand of The Godfather Simply Awesome

WORDPRESS (.com and .org): My favorite web 2.0 tool is WordPress. I adopted WordPress as my blogging tool of choice for one reason only. There was a unique buzz about it telling me that this was the future of blogging software. OK, the people who were telling me this were friends whose opinions I respect and who aggressively go after the coolest new stuff. One of these guys was Leo Laporte who I worked with at TechTV and have done a radio show with in the past. He was doing blog stuff very early on and has migrated from one system to another. Ironically I actually beat him to using WordPress although he was recommending it.

PHOTOBUCKET: Photobucket this is favorite web 2.0 tool.Photobucket has two main focuses. Searching and browsing in Photobucket’s huge categorized library is easy, and a pretty impressive resource of images. Photobucket’s categories are more fun than other sites, and in general it attracts less serious photography than sites like Flickr. Here you’ll quickly be able to find funny images, cute messages and icons, amongst other things.

GMAIL: Gmail is definitely the best one! It’s simple, it’s fast, it’s gorgeous. The filters you can create are just great and the connection with other Google services (e.g. Documents, Calendar) is a great advantaege over the other platforms.

WEBQUEST: WebQuest. I teach in college and in elementary school and I try to integrate new and fun activities every semester.

CLASSDOJO: My favorite web 2.0 tool is classdojo. I love this. As I am walking around my class I am able to update each students behavior. Since I started using this disruptions are down.

CONCEPT BOARD: At the moment I like http://conceptboard.com – best non-flash whiteboard tool I’ve ever seen – runs perfectly even on the slowest connections. + kids love it

COZI: I love Cozi because it lets me share photos, calendars, shopping lists etc. with partner, who hates technology. This one is easy enough to use on my cell or anywhere – ease of use is the trick.

DELICIOUS: Definitely Delicious and Diigo as one of the challenges facing higher ed students today is information managements and also sharing quality information sources.

PREZI: Prezi is my fav Web 2.0 tool because it makes presentations fresh, energetic and brings the basics of “show and tell” into the future. Excellent tool for sharing and engaging the audience with more creative, imaginative content. Kudos to Prezi !!!

ADOBE EDUCATION EXCHANGE: More than 2,000 resources for all kinds of teachers. Simple way to find some curated teaching tools.

YOONO: Oh yoono is brilliant! You can even hide Facebook updates by application. Turn off FarmVille and suddenly it’s readable. THIS IS THE FUTURE.

TUTORVISTA: I think tutorvista is best web 2.0 it teaches me math english etc

IBIS READER: The Ibis Reader is one Web 2.0 tool I couldn’t do without in the classroom. It is a lightweight, Web-based EPUB reader that I use to share .epub files created in InDesign.

PICNIK: Picnik is my favorite Web 2.0 tool. Even though I have Photoshop mastered I find myself using Picnik for a lot of my photo editing and cropping. They have very cool special effects that only take 1 click and you can easily make collages. For advanced jobs I still use Photoshop, but for a little quickie I love Picnik!

AVIARY: Aviary is my favorite web2.0 tool playing with music and pictures becomes fun www.aviary.com

GOOGLE DOCS: My favorite Web 2.0 tool is probably Google Docs. It makes file transfer a complete breeze for students who change computers often. Runners up are Gmail and Tumblr.

FOURSQUARE: Foursquare is really useful to let your friends know where you are and when so that they can join up with you.

WIKIS: Wikis are the most useful when you are looking for real in depth information about certain subjects since they are like mini-wikipedias for one subject.

TEXTFUGU: Textfugu is a really interesting one. It is an online subscriber-based (or one time payment) Japanese textbook created and updated by Koichi, one of the top online Japanese language bloggers.

FLICKR: Flickr is my favorite photo upload service. I use it much more than Facebook since Flickr is only for photos and not bloated by other things.

TWEETDECK: Tweetdeck organizes your tweets, Facebook posts and foursquare updates all in one place. It constantly updates as well so you are never without information.

SLIDESHARK: SlideShark converts your PowerPoint files without losing any of your original formatting, transitions, or animations.

GOOGLE MAPS: Google Maps has gotten me to more destinations than I can remember. Mapquest who?

KAYWA QR: Kaywa QR code generator (http://qrcode.kaywa.com/) is a web tool that I use quite often. I’ve put codes on our business cards, web page, bulletin boards, etc. I’m in the process of adding QR codes to some trade books to enhance the reading experience.

YOUTUBE: Youtube is the best possible timewaster on the internet. Apart from all the time that I have completely squandered on it it is also very useful when looking for news or other information.

REDDIT: Reddit is the best upgrade to the Digg formula that I have seen. Great way to see what is the most popular thing at the current time.

WOLFRAM ALPHA: Wolfram Alpha has changed the way I take math classes. A search engine where you can search for anything from terms to full on equations. Excellent help for calculus problems.

CHROME APP STORE: The Chrome App Store is great as it has many different apps from education to entertainment (some free, some not). It is great as a games platform or a reference for learning new things.

GOOGLE CALENDAR: Google Calendar is the only way I set and track important dates and tasks that I have. It always stays synced with my phone so I always know when I need to be somewhere.

GOOGLE NEW: Google New is a central location where visitors will find news on the latest updates to Google’s products and the newest product offerings from Google.

TUMBLR: Best blog platform ever. The ability to follow people and see their posts in a list format is what makes this website the best.

GMAIL: I refuse to believe that any other email service or program can beat Gmail. With everything from computers to Android phones running entirely Google all the time there is no reason to use anything else.

TRENDS MAP: Trends Map is a Google Maps display of topics current trending on Twitter. The map displays the trends according to their locations. If you want to see what people are talking about in France, just use the map to zoom-in on France and see the topics that are trending.

EVERNOTE: Evernote is a great tool, especially for language study. If you attempt to read something and there is a word or sentence that you don’t know use Evernote to clip it and review it later.

NEWGROUNDS: Newgrounds is a great place for aspiring animators to practice their Adobe Flash skills and share them with the world. There are some very talented people on there.

DEVIANTART: deviantART is an amazing place for artists to share their work with others. I love going there and looking at the great work that people have done. It is probably a very good place to get picked up for paid work as well.

30 BOXES: It is an interesting Calendar tool that doesn’t require you to manually enter everything. You just type the gist of the appointment as well as the time and date into the text box and it makes it for you. It is so easy.

ETSY: I really like Etsy. It is an Ebay-like site except it deals in handmade crafts and supplies only. I like to knit sometimes and Etsy provides a place for me to sell what I make.

TYPING ADVENTURE: Typing Adventure is a nice little game that young students can use to practice their typing skills.

TWEETDECK:One of my favorite tools is Tweetdeck. I have it on my desktop, my cell phone and my iPad and I can sync all of the devices to show the same columns and tweets on each one. I can also direct my tweets to also post to Facebook or extend past the 140 character limitation using Tweetdeck.

SUPERKIDS: SuperKids has created a collection of easy-to-use, free educational resources, for home and school.

USTREAM.TV: Ustream.tv is a great place for anyone to broadcast whatever they want to live. From podcasts to do it yourself news.

VIMEO: Vimeo is an interesting alternative to Youtube. High quality videos without all the fluff.

STEAM: Steam is the only place that I will purchase PC games anymore. Infinitely downloadable with a fantastic community to boot.

WOOT: Get ready for the Woot off! Woot is a pretty good place to find deals on almost anything. Sure you can’t pick the item but you can get a great deal on anything they put up.

EBAY: Ebay is a great place not only to sell your things but also to find rare items (books, movies, games, etc.). It’s integration with Paypal makes it even better.

GAMEFAQS: I have been using Gamefaqs since its inception. Giant community of people wanting to discuss and help people with problems.

PAYPAL: Paypal makes it so easy to pay for anything. Whether it be to online retailers or family and friends.

PANDORA: I use Pandora to find out about new bands that are similar to the ones that I like. It being free is also a plus.

URBANSPOON: Urbanspoon is awesome! It makes finding a place to eat so easy. Also a great way to find out about new or unknown places.

SONGMEANINGS: Songmeanings.net is the only place I will go to for song lyrics now. Under the lyrics is a comment section where you can analyze the lyrics. Sometimes reading through those will make you think about a song in a completely different way.

IMDB: I can’t watch movies without browsing IMDb while it is on. I just love reading the trivia and seeing what else the actors have been in.

AMAZON: Amazon is the only place that I do my shopping (other than clothes and groceries). Being able to check reviews, alternatives and alternate pricing has quickly made it the only way to shop.

FITNESS FREE: Keep fit with the help of a huge exercise base compiled by pros!

HEART RATE-FREE: The applications detects how the colour of your finger changes when blood flows into it. Similar to the way that a medical pulse oximeter works.

THI PERSONAL TRAINER LITE: THI Personal Trainer LITE takes full advantage of the iPhone and iPod’s capabilities. This app includes a sample exercise library with complete and clear instructions.

RSS GADGETS ON iGOOGLE: My homepage on Google is now the central portal with all RSS feeds that I need along my Google Docs, Gmail, blog notifications.

STUDY HALL APP: Imagine not being limited to the traditional physical confines of the brick and mortar class-rooms! Taking advantage of social, digital and mobile revolutions to dramatically improve learning outcomes has never been easier or more rewarding.

TEACHING CHANNEL: It is a great tool for educators. They have useful videos for teachers, and lots of resources and lesson plans that go along with the videos.

TESTMOZ: Easy way to create online tests . Makes us teachers life a little bit easier!!!

Last Year’s List

Add Your Favorite!

Want to add your favorite Web 2.0 tool to this list? It’s not too late! We’ll be adding items through the rest of 2011. After that, we start building the 2012 list. To share your Web 2.0 tool, just leave a comment on this post or on the Edudemic Facebook page.

Copied webpage list, pasted in Word, sorted by paragraph and then duplicates stood out. Great list….I am going to test out some I haven’t heard of before. Thanks~Sue

suzcomptime

November 12, 2011 at 12:07 pm

If you need another to fill a slot….I have heard of educators using Teachertube.com

~Sue

hmcnally

November 10, 2011 at 8:13 am

This is a _great_ list of web-based tools that can be used in education. I just wish the educational community would STOP USING the term “Web 2.0.” It’s dated and nebulous. It is neither meaningful to the public at large (and certainly not by digital natives), nor used by the interactive media community to describe the products it builds.

In fact, it’s _never_ really been used by web development practitioners–the term was first seen in 1999, and came into vogue after publisher Tim O’Reilly started using it (http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html). Admittedly, O’Reilly has turned Web 2.0 into a nice business for itself (“Web 2.0 Expo”); it’s ironic to consider that the term is arguably 12 years old, and a commercial entity for about 7 years. Today, the term “Web 2.0″ is an artifact of a time passed, not the line in the sand it was 7 years ago. The times, they have a-changed. There is no more Web 1.0.

The use of “Web 2.0″ only serves to make the educational community appear disconnected from the rest of the world. Compare it to using the term “color TV” in 1980 (“great COLOR TV shows that can be used in the classroom!”). Interactivity is the baseline of web media today. Let’s focus on what the products do, not what category they’re in.

I’ve been a web development professional since 1994 (yes, the Berners-Lee/W3C era). I just finished my MA in ed tech. I see the educational community clinging to this jargon as problematic, and it’s strange to me. I’m sorry if this offends anyone. That is all.

Animoto and VoiceThread also show up twice. It seems that all the Google websites should just be under one “Google” rather than each Google app being voted in separately. Somewhat wasting of space, but then, it might not matter — it doesn’t seem that IMDB or Amazon or FitnessFree have much to do with being educational apps. There are some good things on here, but as an educator, it’s always disappointing to see a total lack of editing.

I stronly recommend PhotoPeach – similar to Animoto, PhotoPeach puts together a slide presentation with images. But, you can add a lot more text to PhotoPeach AND have students create interactive Quizes. Here is an example: http://photopeach.com/album/r7mb5p – Enhancing Creativity in Education through WEB 2.0

Pathbrite (www.pathbrite.com) would be a good one to add to the list. Their digital portfolios enable individuals to go beyond the bubble test and traditional resumes to vividly showcase a lifetime of learning and personal achievements.

This is an amazing resource. As a college professor teaching online, I’m stunned I didn’t see this before now. Wow! Wonderful. Teaching Candy!!!

However, I was stunned to see number one as Blogger/Blogspot. I do hope academia is not going to continue down that path. It really worries me that one of the most spam-filled hosting services is being considered.

I was relieved to find the more secure and easy to use WordPress.com on the list. WordPress.com is a much safer environment on many levels, and their features are now quite extensive. Themeefy is also a better alternative.

I believe it is imperative that we, the teachers, serve as an example to our students. Google’s Blogger has become a poor decision until Google finally removes all the spam and pr0n sties. We’ve been begging them for many years, but these sites make them a lot of money. By association through the domain name, student and teacher sites are linked to these sites and it worries me greatly. There are are many other alternatives including Edublogs or hosting your own WordPress Multi-site or WordPress hosted site if WordPress.com doesn’t work as an alternative, all free.